Monday, February 7, 2022

Disneyland 2022

 We finally made it to Disneyland! We went with my parents and Livy and went from Tuesday, February 1 to Monday, February 7.  A lot of planning went into this trip and I was so worried that covid was going to ruin everything, but luckily it all went great. At first I booked flights with American Airlines that were non-stop. A little while later our flights were changed and included a stop in AZ. I was not happy with this and was able to cancel those flights and get us flights for about the same price on a non-stop Delta flight. Both flights were on time and were good flights. The boys sat by Matt and I sat behind them. We flew out around 3:15pm on Tuesday into LAX and then had to take a shuttle to the rental car place and then picked up the car. This is where we had some trouble... Emerson started throwing up in the car and threw up several more times until we arrived at our VRBO house we rented. When he first threw up, we stopped at a gas station to change his clothes and clean up what we could. The gas station didn't have any baby wipes, clorox wipes, or even paper towels in the bathroom to use. My wonderful Dad was so kind and helped Emerson when he threw up for the rest of the drive while I tried to help navigate Matt to our house. I guess Emerson's first flight didn't sit so well with him and this was not the best start to our trip. We didn't know if he was just motion sick, or if he had some kind of illness and wouldn't be able to enjoy Disneyland. Luckily once we got to the house and he took a bath, he seemed like he was feeling much better. That night my Mom and I went to Costco and Wal-Mart to buy food for all our meals. I did not want to pay the Disney prices for all our meals and wanted to cook what we could. 

The next morning we all got up, ate breakfast, made our lunches to bring with us to the park and headed out around 9am. The line to Indiana Jones wasn't too bad when we first got there, so we did that ride first. Emerson was too short to ride it, so he and Matt went on Pirates of the Caribbean. Deacon loved the ride, and Livy shut her eyes and ducked into Grandpa the whole time. After that, we all went on Pirates of the Caribbean together, followed by the Haunted Mansion. We hung around Adventureland for a good portion of the day doing the canoes, going over to Tom Sawyer island, and going on the Winnie the Pooh ride. We ate our lunch and also let the kids buy a treat. Deacon got a huge cookie in the shape of Mickey's head, and Emer got one that was also in the shape of Mickey's head, but wasn't as big and was half dipped in frosting. We went around to a few more rides like Thunder Mountain and the train. My parents went back to the house that evening and we stayed a bit longer and went to Toontown where we saw Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto, and did a few rides in Tommorowland. We stayed until the light/projection show at 7pm, and then headed home. We were all pretty exhausted! We ate dinner and I think pretty much went to bed. 

During this trip, we had to wear masks whenever we were indoors and on all the rides. We also had to wear them on the airplane and any stores in CA. This was not fun, but better than having to wear them all the time.  Also, all three kids had to fight over who was riding with Matt on every ride... it caused a few problems and tears, but we managed through it. 






I have to mention that Deacon was very excited to go to the beach and before we left for Disneyland this morning, he asked if we could go to Disneyland for 1/2 the day, and to the beach for the other 1/2 of the day. That wasn't really possible, but we did plan a beach day on Saturday. On our last day, he also asked if we could take him to the beach while we cleaned up.... I don't think so kid!

The next day we went to California Adventure. We went straight to the Cars ride line since it is so popular and had to wait about an hour. It was a fun ride though. A little later we went on the Guardians of the Galaxy ride. I had never been on this and was a little nervous about it for both myself and the kids. The kids did not like it! (neither did I, or my mom). Matt and my Dad seemed to enjoy it. Unfortunately that ride kind of ruined the day for Deacon a bit and he wasn't in the best mood. We went to the Talk with Crush show, which everyone really enjoyed, and Mickey's PhilharMagic show. We did some more rides including The Little Mermaid, Buzz Lightyear, and the ferris wheel. I thought it was a fun day but Livy kept saying "I'm never going on that ride again!" talking about the Guardians of the Galaxy, and Deacon said he was never going to California Adventure again. We went home and had dinner and got ready for another fun day.








On Friday, we were able to get right on Space Mountain when we first entered Disneyland, so we did that first. We were also able to go on the new Star Wars ride that afternoon. Right when we got in line, they closed the ride temporarily and didn't know how long it would be before it was running again. We took the gamble and stayed in line and probably waited 1.5 hours to go on it. It  definitely was a fun experience and I'm so glad we decided to stay in line while they got it running again. I was hoping to go on it again on our last day, but unfortunately it ended up being closed almost all day on Sunday, which was a bummer ): At least we were able to go on it the one time. We went on the other Star Wars ride and a few other rides including Jungle Cruise, which Emerson was asleep for. It was a fun ride to go on with the sun down. We told the kids they could spend the money they got for Christmas on what they wanted at Disneyland, but told them to wait until they saw what was available before they decided. Emerson was pretty focused on buying his "toy" and wouldn't stop talking about it. He would say how excited he was and would keep asking if he could buy something. I was going to wait until Sunday to let them spend their money, but he was pretty set on buying some Legos, so I said he could get his Lego set on our way home on Friday. Both boys ended up buying a Lego set, which I thought was kind of funny because they can buy Legos anywhere, but I guess that's what they wanted. That night, Disneyland was supposed to have a firework show, so my Dad dropped me, Matt, Deacon and Emerson off at the drop off location and we went back for the show. I guess the high winds were too strong that night, so they did the same light/projection show they did the other night and no fireworks, but it was still fun. 









The next day was our beach day. Deacon had really been looking forward to this. Livy wanted a Lego set now, too, so after the boys built their sets, we walked back to Downtown Disney where the Lego store was and she got one, too. We went to the World of Disney Store, too where Emerson got some Alien toys from Toy Story. 

We left for the beach around lunchtime with plans to buy lunch somewhere near the beach. The house we stayed at had some beach towels, chairs, and sand toys were were able to bring with us. On our drive to Newport beach, Deacon started to feel sick this time. We stopped by an In-and-Out and Matt went to get food while Deacon rested on the grass and had a snack. He started to feel better and we were able to make it to the beach. We all had our burgers and fries and then the kids played in the sand and water. They loved it! I thought the water was freezing, but the kids ended up getting their full bodies wet. We even saw a seal swimming not too far from us. It was a good day! 












On our last day at Disney, we went to Disneyland first, and as I mentioned before, we were hoping to go on the Star Wars ride again, but it was closed ): We got on Jungle Cruise again to see how it was in the day, and I also wanted Emerson to be awake on it this time (: We did some other rides and had lunch and then decided we would go shopping, go home and eat dinner, and then come back again that night. Deacon and Livy both got a Stitch toy, and Emerson got another Minecraft Lego set. The shopping ended up taking a lot longer than I thought it would and we didn't end up resting for too long, but we did have dinner and then went back to California Adventure to do a few rides we hadn't been able to do yet. We got in line for the Spider-Man Webslingers ride, which was pretty fun, and then me and the boys went to Soaring Over the World, while my Dad, Livy, and Matt went to do the Incredicoaster. By this time, the lines were getting shorter, but the park was getting closer to closing. Matt, Livy, and my Dad were able to go on the rollercoaster twice. Livy loved it! They all said it was a really fun ride. The boys and I enjoyed Soarin,' and then booked it over to the Cars ride to see if we could get on it one more time before it closed. We made it to the Cars ride about 9:40pm, and Matt, Livy, and my Dad were able to get in line at 8:57pm, 3 minutes before the line closed, and we all went on the Cars ride again. We probably should have gone home at this point because we were exhausted, but we decided to go try the Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run ride one more time. The more fun Star Wars  ride -Rise of the Resistance, had closed by this time, but we made it to the other ride and got on it fairly quickly. After all that, somehow we were able to make it home. I was proud of the kids for walking so much that day. I think we walked over 13 miles!!














The next morning we got cleaned up and headed for home. Luckily no one got sick on the car ride or the airplane, and we made it back safe and sound. Deacon fell asleep on the plane, and Emerson watched Wall-E. All in all it was a fun trip and nice to be together for some fun family time.

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